By Deb Moken
There’s no denying that Jesus was a one-man revolution. To dig into his teachings is like mining for gold or precious gems. I stumbled on one such gem this week in Matthew 5. A familiar portion of His inaugural message:
21Ye have heard that it was said unto them of the old time, Thou shalt not kill: for whosoever killeth shall be culpable of judgment. 22 But I say unto you, whosoever is angry with his brother unadvisedly, shall be culpable of judgment. And whosoever saith unto his brother, Raca, shall be worthy to be punished by the Council. And whosoever shall say, Fool, shall be worthy to be punished with hell fire. (GNV)
Admittedly, I was tempted, as is so often the case, to tell myself that because I know what it says I understand what it means. Maybe not so much.
“Who’s your brother?”
“Um, well… ah…. I know that means everybody. ‘Brother’ is synonymous with all humanity.”
“Really?”
“Well, I think so.”
“Making bold strokes with a broad brush. Idealistic. How about you reign it in a bit.”
“Ok, I have 2 brothers: Rick and Ken.“
“Oh, Deb. Who. Is. Your, Brother?”
“You Lord. You are my Brother.”
“Bingo! Now, read it again with more specificity.”
If I am unjustifiably angry with you, Jesus, it’s because I am guilty of having pronounced, through short-sighted ignorance, a judgment.
“Good. Continue”
If I think so little of you that your words, ways, and teachings are deemed worthless and of no significant value to me, I am guilty of accepting and giving worthless counsel.
“Go on.”
And if I believe you are a deceived deceiver, I am, myself deceived by the deception of hell itself.
Now, there’s some thoughts worth chewing on.
We are given a glimpse into what that looks like in Luke 22.
Peter is so angry with Jesus, he denies ever having known Him.
Judas decided that Jesus was a worthless waste of time and resources, so sells Him out for 30 pieces of silver to the…
Governing body who believed that He was a deceiver leading the ignorant masses down a deceptive path (away from their control), so they killed Him.
From where I sit, that seems to describe the state of society lately. And it explains the process of its devolution. Starts out by simply being ignorantly and unjustifiably angry with the Lord. That paves the way to believing His ways are worthless and of no value to you or anyone else. From there, it’s a short trip to swapping name-tags between the actual deceiver (satan) and The Way, The Truth, and The Life (Jesus).
How do we find our way back? Eph. 4 spells it out pretty clearly. And I think Paul knew what he was talking about, being one who was firmly ensconced in the anger-worthless-killer trap in his early years.
